Swim Across America

Swim Across America, Inc., an organization of volunteer swimmers and friends and family members of cancer patients that raises money for cancer research through swim events, has funded a laboratory at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center headed by Cancer Center Director, Dr. Bill Nelson.

In its first year, Swim Across America, Baltimore set the record for the largest inaugural event in Swim Across America history. The open water and pool swims have grown and have raised over $2,600,000 in 7 years for the Swim Across America Lab at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins.

News From the Baltimore Swim Across America Lab

In early November, the FDA granted breakthrough therapy status to pembrolizumab for colon cancer patients with certain alterations in so-called mismatch repair genes. The FDA’s decision, which expedites the agency’s review of the drug, was prompted by research led by experts at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center’s Swim Across America Laboratory and announced in May 2015. Read more.

In a report of a proof-of-principle study of patients with colon and other cancers for whom standard therapies failed, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center say that mistakes in so-called mismatch repair genes, first identified by Johns Hopkins and other scientists two decades ago, may accurately predict who will respond to certain immunotherapy drugs known as PD-1 inhibitors. Such drugs aim to disarm systems developed by cancer cells to evade detection and destruction by immune system cells. Read more.

Swim Across America Baltimore 2015 - A Success

The 2015 Swim Across America Baltimore event was a huge success thanks to all the swimmers, volunteers, donors, sponorsors and more. The event, held September 2015, has raised more than $550,000 and counting!

Watch a highlight video from the open water swim event

Swim Across America 2014 Event Recap:

In 2014, two new clinical trials were launched. One uses a combination of a conventional chemotherapy drug at very low doses to extend the lives of patients with pancreatic cancer and the second involves a new immune target that provides new options for patients whose cancers have not responded to existing treatments.

Because of the generosity and dedication of hundreds of swimmers and volunteers, our team of researchers and clinicians are forging ahead against the toughest, most advanced cancers.